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Two trans women and men and a self-identified “genderqueer” person will each appear in one of the five separate ads that the agency will place throughout the city in the fall. The spots will highlight respect, shared values and D.C.’s anti-discrimination law, which includes trans-specific protections. The ads will also encourage trans Washingtonians to contact OHR if they experience discrimination based on gender identity and expression.

“LGBT organizations are telling us this is the first government-sponsored campaign in the nation to focus solely on transgender and gender non-conforming people, and the Office of Human Rights is incredibly proud of that,” OHR Director Gustavo Velasquez told the Blade in a statement. “To ensure we take full-advantage of the opportunity, we identified three primary goals for the campaign: increase understanding of transgender and gender non-conforming people, reduce discriminatory incidents in the District and increase the number of community members who report discrimination … .”

Mayor Vincent Grey announced last year that he would be creating a program specifically designed to help DC’s trans population find employment, and the administration has been keen to work with local LGBT groups to find other ways to support the community.

As noted above, the ads will feature gender variant people from a number of DC organizations including Casa Ruby, a Latino LGBT community center.

DC has seen an increased rate of anti-LGBT bias motivated crimes in the past few years, in particular those aimed at the trans community. With this program it is hoped that there will be an improved awareness of anti-trans discrimination and greater scope to report any bias-motivated threats or acts.

@John M. I know this is an old article, but I had to comment. As a transgendered Man myself, I must contest you on this point. I am most certainly not what I was born with, as you comment ensues, but instead I am who I am, who I was meant to be. No genetic marker can rid the world of that fact.

Here are some details about trans people who've been murdered, taken from http://www.gender.org/remember/about/core.html

Luana: after humiliating and torturing Luana, police forced her into the sea, and she drowned
Jessy Santiago: beaten with an iron bar and stabbed with a box cutter, a screw driver and a knife
Cameron Tina Tanner: beaten to death by 2 men with baseball bats
Brandon (a transman): forcibly stripped, then raped and assaulted him. When he reported it, the 2 attackers shot him to death, then stabbed his corpse
Maxwell Confait: burned alive by 3 teenagers
Chanelle Pickett: strangled after suffering a beating that left her face terribly bruised and bloody
Giuseppe Mandanici: killed by a hit man hired by his father
Debra Forte: multiple 6" stab wounds to the chest, any of which would have been sufficient to kill her, after being beaten about the head and shoulders
Tyra Hunter: was in an accident and received substandard care from Washing DC General Hospital and the paramedics at the scene of the accident
Johanna Langer: stabbed 120 times
Christian Paige: brutally beaten about the head and ears, then strangled, stabbed deeply in her chest and breast area between 15 and 2 dozen times, and finally, burned.
Chrissey Johnson: stripped, tied up, raped, stabbed at least 15 times and thrown from the second floor of her apartment to the first
Marcela: stabbed and ignored by both the police and an ambulance
Dianne Aubert: stabbed in the back 121

Excellent news! I wouldn't wish gender dyspohoria on my worst enemy ... well, maybe I would, especially if they were religious or right-wing nut-jobs who claimed that LGBTQs should have no rights at all, or people who spout out "you are what you were born with,NOT,what you wish to have!" on each and every thread about trans issues.

GID is one of the worst non-terminal conditions I can think of. If you don't transition, you are in agony and living a lie, therefore at greater risk of self harm and suicide. If you do transition and are true to yourself, you are at considerable risk of threats, ridicule, assault, torture and murder. When you look at trans people who have been murdered, it is rarely a single gun shot wound or stab wound. Instead they tend to suffer from prolong, repeated attacks, such as beatings, sometimes followed by a killing stab or shot, or frenzied attacks with knives, or group attacks. Worse of all, some die because hospitals turn them away when they require
emergency healthcare. Sometimes the ones who attack and kill them are relatives.

@ Debbie B and Heather M.
I like to send you a green star, but not able to yet. I want to say thank You for your post. You got it right. Thank You for expressing it. I hope more people get what your saying and open their minds a little wider. Kudos, and many blessings to you both.

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Steve Williams is a passionate supporter of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) rights, human rights, animal welfare and health care reform. He is a published novelist, poet and citizen journalist, and a scriptwriter for computer games, film and web serials. less